The top reason we cruise is to see the islands on a laid back schedule. A secondary perk of traveling the Caribbean at a leisurely pace is meeting all sorts of people from many countries. We hold a natural comradery with most Americans, of course, although the Captain has a thing for Texans that I won’t get into. The British we’ve encountered are a playful, happy lot and we always enjoy their company. The South Africans often seem to be organizing a party or know where one is and they tend to know where to get the best value for 6TT for $1 US dollar. The Germans and Dutch we’ve met are lovely people who speak perfect English and welcome a good time. The Canadians have sailed long and hard to get to these warmer latitudes and are delightful.
But some cruisers are haughty blokes. On the way to shop last week, one cruiser gent proceeded to preach to me that “We cruisers don’t use plastic grocery store bags. We bring our own assortment of sturdy, reusable shopping bags.” I wanted to scream (! * @ & # !!!) because I’ve been using reusable bags for over ten years before we started cruising. Instead I took a deep breath and smiled, saying- “Yes, I do too.”
So we’re shopping at the mall (YES, there are malls in Trinidad that closely resemble those in the USA) and I happened upon a great sale on swimsuits. I went to find Lilly who was in the clutches of the cruiser gent’s wife. Lilly seemed eager to leave with me…Unfortunately, the wife followed us to check out the swimsuit sale. I showed Lilly a group of cute suits I thought she’d fit and like. Then the wife started saying “You really should buy bikinis because it’s so hot in the Caribbean!” Lilly and I glanced at each other long enough to send an unspoken message- INHALE DEEPLY, EXHALE DEEPLY…SMILE. What the wife didn’t know is that Lilly only likes one piece suits and I have generally only worn bikinis FOR-EV-ER! Could our shopping trip get any more annoying?
Another time, I put out an all-call query on the VHF radio seeking recommendations for getting a canvas dinghy cover made. I got three responses and one cruiser said I could have one that he didn’t need any more. We were in the middle of a project on board ES, so I told him we might not be able to come to see the cover that day. Dan and I went to check it out the next day and were told that M from s/v For-A-Lie (not real name) came and took it! I was totally teed off! M had to have eaves dropped on our conversation on another radio channel to know that it was even offered to me. I repeatedly called M on the radio with no response. So Lilly and I dinghied over to For-A-Lie and confronted him. I don’t think we looked that intimidating, but M readily admitted that he indeed had the cover and handed it over. The cover was in decent shape and fit our dinghy fine after I used some Sunbrella remnants to sew in an extension.
Ninety-nine point nine percent of the people we meet while traveling are the salt of the earth-like our dear friends on Tiger Lilly. And every now and then, the Lord just throws in a few odd ducks to pepper our life up a bit.
NOTE: After listening to this morning’s Cruisers’ Net, I can confirm that ALL of the odd ducks mentioned in this piece are from the same country.
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